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Trois Chansons is one of the special, small-scale gems in the oeuvre of the French composer Maurice Ravel (1875–1937). Unlike his large orchestral works and piano music, these three songs are written for a cappella choir—his only true work without instrumental accompaniment.
Ravel composed the Trois Chansons between December 1914 and February 1915, during the first winter of the First World War. At that time, he was in Paris waiting for the call to military service as a Frenchman. Instead of merely listening to war news, he wrote both the texts and the music himself, in a spirit reminiscent of the French chanson tradition of the sixteenth century—cheerful, playful, and sometimes ironic.
The triptych consists of three separate pieces:
- Nicolette, a light-footed, almost fairy-tale-like story about a girl, in which Ravel playfully uses rhythm and tone color to evoke a humorous, almost folk-like atmosphere.
- Trois beaux oiseaux du paradis, the central song, in which three birds from paradise appear to deliver the message of her beloved’s death to a young girl—a theme that subtly reflects the wartime circumstances in which the work was created.
- Ronde, a lively, reckless round that bursts with rhythmic energy, featuring all sorts of imaginative forest figures and fairy-tale creatures passing by.
The work was published in 1916 and received its first concert performance in Paris in October 1917, sung by a special ensemble under the direction of Louis Aubert.
performers
Cappella Amsterdam
Daniel Reuss conductor
Solisten in Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis
Heleen Bongenaar soprano
Laura Lopes mezzosoprano
Dinis Rodrigues tenor
Jitze van der Land bariton
